Jim Prior

Jim Prior (11 October 1927-12 December 2016) was a British Conservative Party MP who served as Secretary of State for Employment from 4 May 1979 to 14 September 1981, succeeding Albert Booth and preceding Norman Tebbit.

Biography
Jim Prior was born in Norwich, Norfolk, England in 1927, and he was first elected to Parliament in 1959 as the Conservative Party MP from Lowestoft. Under Edward Heath, Prior served as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food (1970-2) and Leader of the House of Commons (1972-4). Under Margaret Thatcher's administration, he served as Secretary of State for Employment from 1979 to 1981. Prior clashed with Thatcher on her unwillingness to compromise with trade unions as well as her monetarist policies, and, as a leader of the "wet" faction of the Conservative Party, he was moved to the less pivotal role of Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in 1981. He served in this post until 1984, when he stood down, never to return to government. He died in 2016.